Lenny Megliola: Red Sox looking pretty sickly

Last Tuesday I walked into the Red Sox clubhouse feeling great. Upon leaving I, like some of the players, was feeling pukey.

Lenny Megliola

Last Tuesday I walked into the Red Sox clubhouse feeling great. Upon leaving I, like some of the players, was feeling pukey.

I'd heard about the bug, the flu, the whatever that was going around the team. The players were throwing up instead of warming up. They were poppin' Tylenol instead of greenies. They were shivering, even though the room was hot. Jason Varitek, one of the sickest, looked like the ghost of catchers' past.

I'm thinking, suck it up guys. A few hours later, I barely had enough strength to type a column. It's not always easy placing your fingers on a keyboard, you know. I was coughing and sneezing so much I had to keep wiping off my computer screen.

I broke into a cold sweat. I blame Manny Delcarmen. He was the latest to get sick that night. As he left the clubhouse to go home before the game even started, he walked right by me.

“I got something,” he said, his breath almost on me.

I had something too, and it got worse the next day. I sent the doctor's bill to Delcarmen.

I'm better now, but the Red Sox, as you've noticed, are still a sickly bunch. They lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4, 2-1 and 3-0 over the weekend.

Who knew the flu could be contagious to bats too? Dustin Pedroia was 2-for-14 on the trip. His bat demanded a trade. Kevin Youkilis was 0-for-10. He goes ballistic when he's 0-for-1. Oh-for-Tampa must have made Youk fun to be around.

David Ortiz was 0-for-6, but what do you expect from a guy hitting just .177 points higher than Joe Thurston, who is 0-for-8 this season?

You sort of had a clue it might be a bad series for the Sox when Tim Wakefield, 19-3 lifetime against Tampa Bay, couldn't extend his mastery in the first game of the series.

We haven't hit May yet and not a lot has gone right for the Red Sox. Besides the flu, Mike Lowell, Coco Crisp, Alex Cora, Josh Beckett, Sean Casey and Mike Timlin have missed games for one reason or another.

The Red Sox' Florida nosedive had them sharing first place with the Rays and Orioles. Pretty humbling stuff right there.

The Red Sox flew back to Boston on Red Cross Air to start a series with the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. Something's got to give. The perennially disappointing Jays have dropped seven of their last 10. Maybe if the Boston players go over to the Toronto clubhouse before the team arrives and sneeze all around the room, the Blue Jays may suddenly become too weak to play.

You figure the Red Sox will start hitting. Big Papi will exact revenge on opposing pitchers, but there is also a nagging notion that his knee may be more trouble than anyone thought. So Papi, at least lay off sliding into first base, please. You look like a flying whale.

No complaints about his slugging partner Manny Ramirez. OK, just one: 26 strikeouts in 98 at bats?

Pedroia will hit. Even after the Tampa series he's at .324. J.D. Drew better hit. Let's see how long it takes Lowell to get untracked when he gets back in the lineup. Varitek's bat is a concern.

The pitching is OK. The team ERA is 4.61, but that's because Timlin's ERA is at 13.50 and David Pauley and Bryan Corey, who have lifetime passes on the bus to Pawtucket, have ERAs over 10.

Clay Buchholz and Beckett pitched well enough against the Rays to win 94 percent of the time. Middle relief is a problem for a lot of teams, and Boston is no exception. The bridge to Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon has been a creaky one. Delcarmen has been a disappointment. Who would've figured ol' AA, David Aardsma, would be the most dependable middle man so far?

Flashback to Buchholz, '07: Justin Masterson's impressive six innings of work in his big-league debut last week.

Things will get better. No need for fans to show up at Fenway with bags over their heads. As long as the Rays don't come in this weekend and sweep the Sox again.

Lenny Megliola is a Daily News columnist. His e-mail is lennymegs@aol.com